Maybe we can narrow this down a bit and find a clue. The Cowetta Co. GA Matthew is out because my Matthew is in the 1840 & 1850 Census in . MS. I first picked up his trail as a land buyer in the Tuscaloosa, AL Land Office in 1825.Sec 20 T20N R11. Then he shows in 1830 AL Census. Later found in him in Kemper Co MS Census with wife Jane (though unamed) in the 1840 Fed census. He lingered in Alabama and bought/swapped more land in and near Tuscaloosa and Pickens Counties and was raising a family. Unnamed son(s) mentioned in affidavits I found in his case file on one parcel of land when he had to clear the cloud on his title upon sale in 1839. He apparently sold out in 1839 in AL and showed up in 1840 in Kemper Co, MS and in Neshoba Co. MS in 1850. But he was not in the 1860 Neshoba Co. census and his wife was listed as a widow living with dau and SIL, B. N. Georgen near Philadelphia, Neshoba Co. MS.. Have never found his grave or any mention of his death. His daughter, Hannah Louriana, called Loni, b. abt 1837 AL married B. N. George and lived near Philadelphia, MS. He also had a nother dau b. abt 1832, and a son James, b. abt 1835. I have no census documents to prove it, but I believe he was the father of Daniel C. Bates, b. 1820, AL and Frances Marion Bates, b 1818 AL. The last is my Great-Great Grandfather d. 1888 in Kemper Co. MS. It is very possible that the Henry Bates( and family) , on the next page of the 1840 census with only five families separating them from Mathew Bates family on pg 8, is the older brother of Francis Marion Bates and son of Matthew Bates. Some of these assumptions are based on the well known fact that families and in-laws migrated together and settled close to one another; also that NC & SC and GA supplied many of those who took the migration trail to AL and MS. Jack Bates [email protected]